A few thoughts

I took a break for a bit until the crashing bug got worked out and happy to report not a single crash so far! Now that I've played the game a bit more I have a few thoughts:

1. The Nurgle Dreadnoughts pretty much suck. When I played the game day one I had a very epic kiting fight with one and it was exhilarating! Now they have constantly recharging health/armor and it's just annoying. They aren't particularly challenging or compelling right now. They do very little damage to the point where I can pretty much just stand in front of them and go blow for blow until they die. It's to the point where I have a sense of dread when I see one because I know I'm in for a long boring fight with really no challenge at all.

2. The grenade launcher is amazing! My favorite weapon by far right now. It has a good variety of skills, which sometimes feels lacking with other weapons. It feels very powerful and makes you actually feel like a badass inquisitor mowing down demons. I also quite like the autogun. The multimelta feels pretty much useless though and it seems like the point is you need to stack heat resist in order to use it? I haven't really messed with it after realizing how fast it overheats. Edit: I just got a Grav Gun...my new favorite weapon! all 4 abilities are unique and it's so much fun to use!

3. Personally I'm really not a fan of the 3 strikes you're out death counter. I'm not really sure there needs to be this kind of punishment for dying on a mission. Something like losing money on death would be a compromise in my opinion.

4. The base movement speed feels a little too slow. The maps can be fairly large and there isn't a ton of density so often times I feel like I'm just slowly walking to the next pack. It takes me out of the action and it's just not a fun experience. Just increasing the base movement speed a little bit would make it easier to get around and not take you out of the action quite as much.

5. I'm assuming this is just because it's in Alpha, but changing equipment, leveling skills, etc. really need to be accessible during missions. There also really needs to be a way to compared equipment but I'm assuming that will be available later.

6. Cyclon Missile Launcher: The animation for the feels kind of clunky. It feels like you stop moving for way to long and then fire pretty slow projectiles. I'll often times end up shooting behind enemies because the timing feels off. It seems like it's supposed to be your "ultimate" ability but overall the it feels kind of underwhelming. It does charge up pretty fast so it's not so bad, but it seems like it does less damage then the grenade launcher or shotgun. I much prefer the turret ability.

I've only run into a few bugs so far:

On a medium sized ship mission I walked into an empty room, only to have a pack spawn right on top of me, surround me and kill me.

I equipped a blue autogun before a mission and it disappeared as soon as I loaded in.

A few AI bugs where enemies will just stand there not attacking me.

This seems like a long list of negatives but overall I'm enjoying what's available so far and believe this game has a lot of potential.

Movement speed is slowed when you equip a 2 handed heavy weapon, like Heavy Bolter, or grenade launcher.

(but the slowing down effect could cause some annoying issues if someone is playing co-op. It will get annoying of your co-op partners are much faster than you)

Agree on the "3 deaths and mission failed" concept. I died just once in these 14 hours I played the game, but arpg games shouldn't have any punishement such as failing a mission. Instead, give the agility to tone up the difficulty if someone is seaking for a challange, and make dying loose some money instead.

A thing which is I think an issue in long run, the "knockdown" mechanic.

If you get suppressed or overwhelmed and the suppression bar is getting low by your HP bar, big enemies like dreadnaughts and grenades can knock you on ground. Animation for standing up is very long and you have no controll over your character.

Loosing controll is the worst thing in a video game.

+ I faced today with a gamebreaking issue because of this:

A commander attacked me with grenade launchers. I got knocked to the ground, and until I could stand up, he fired a new grenade towards me. So I got in an endless loop, where I was locked into this "knockdown-standup-knockdown-standup" scenario. But he had not enough damage to kill me. -> needs to be fixed :( :)

Yes I completely agree! I've gotten into quite a few stunlock situations where you get knocked down and as soon as you get up you get knocked down again. It's very frustrating and completely unfun.

I remember reading something a long time ago from one of the designers from League of Legends talking about how having a player lose control of their character is one of the worst things you can do in games. Hopefully Neocore considers changing this. Overall I'm not really sure I find the whole suppression mechanic particularly compelling. I guess the point is to incentivize you to use the cover mechanic. I don't mind the slow effect from suppression but the knockdown is the worst.

Really the biggest thing i see right now is the camera angle, You can swivel left to right and zoom in and out but you cant rotate up and down. say hold mouse 3 and scroll up and down to look father down field. Most of the time especially with melee that charge you it is hard to see them before they are already in your face with this camera. Adjusting it like mentioned to just free the view angle so the player can choose what they want it would make it a much more enjoyable experience.

First day of play - thoughts (most of this is an attempt at constructive criticism,,,,overall I'm enjoying my game experience so far)

- I agree about the Nurgle Dreadnoughts. These things are supposed to be elite soldiers entombed in war machines, but I can stand and slap fight with them and come off the best every time. If ther're going to be utilized as a primary targets/mini-bosses, the devs need to up the lethality, perhaps make them a rare encounter rather than 3 or 4 in a map and utilize the space marines, apostles and cultist leaders more in mini boss fights. That will not only give reasion to make them more challenging but will give the players a better experience with anticipation and reward.

- Grav gun is OP....comparatively to other ranged weapons I've tried so far. Also I'd like to see more variation in weapon ranges or the effects they have (solid slug good against flesh, energy against armor?)...it feels silly to have to get as close with a plasma cannon as you do with a melta gun.

- The three strikes thing is okay, so far I haven't failed a mission (apart from disconnects). However I think it would be better utilized as an achievement/reward scale, the better you do the better the EXP reward etc.

- Once again, I agree about the slow movement though it's kind've understandable if your wandering about in heavy armor lugging a plasma cannon or some-such. I'm guessing the crusader's speed is comparatively slow due the the heightened speed of the other classes once they are developed. even so there should be item buffs to improve walking speed at very least.

- The item changing only at base seems annoying at first, but kinda makes sense. I think it would be more realistic to say...have a larger stash/storage on the ship to equip from, and to start each mission with an empty but accessible limited inventory (so more or less your inquisitor has geared for a mission, but can utilize equipment he finds during the mission)

- When wearing sentinel armor I've noticed the sentry guns you can summon sometimes do not activate on enemy approach (particularly the dreadnoughts). Also they need some sort of timer or a way for the character to pack them up, as a max 3 becomes a pain when two are somewhere back away at mission start when you need em.

- Opacity at corners needs to be worked on, I feel blind and often have to fight with camera angle to find out what is attacking me.

- The cover system...can that be expanded to include doorways and corners? Seems like it would be useful in a running firefight.